Art without mystery

IF YOU were ever `mystified by the fine arts', look no further for enlightenment.

The third slim volume on the series ``Demystifying Fine Arts'' from Skanda Trust and its prolific author, Vidya Bhavani Suresh, takes you through such broad and expansive concepts as the ``learning process, sruthi, and the concert''. This volume, titled ``Getting Closer to Carnatic Music'' is also in the budget range, at Rs. 35.

Vidya, who gave a dramatic interpretation to Yesudas' Ahimsa rhythms also proposed a mathematical interpretation to ragas (she was working as a company secretary). The approximately 30 page books that form the ``demystifying'' series are therefore meant for just about everyone, starting with students of carnatic music who can ``assimilate the content'' in a couple of readings, Vidya says.

The first two titles on Maths in Music and Dance and Raga - Its Science and Maths did well, according to her, and this volume, which has lot less maths to contend with, is likely to fare better. So why should a company secretary write about the fine arts?

Vidya Bhavani Suresh for those who did not know, is a Bharatanatyam exponent, musicologist and folklorist.

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